I I Give Permission for Public Access to My Thesis and for Any Copying to Be
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I give permission for public access to my thesis and for any copying to be done at the discretion of the archives librarian and/or the College librarian. ____________________________________ Beier Yao May 2013 i Examining the Source and Function of Meta-stereotypes in a Five-College Context by Beier Yao A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Mount Holyoke College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors Department of Psychology and Education Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, Massachusetts ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all the individuals who supported me through this yearlong journey. The ending product bears all the marks left by them: First, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Jessica Salvatore, for guiding me to the right directions, providing me with the vehicles most in need (both physically and metaphorically), and giving me the liberty to walk my own way at the same time. Though the destination was not exactly what we expected, at least I had a great time all along, even with the detours, and she was the one who never failed to make the journey exciting and delightful. I would also like to thank Robert Shilkret for his meticulous reading of my drafts, constant request for clarity, and all the intellectual comments. I am grateful to Haley Hedlin for agreeing to be on my committee and safeguarding the statistical analyses in this project. Words fail me when I try to express my gratitude to Fran Deutsch. Though she was not able to stay on board, she was the one who encouraged me to embark on the journey in the first place. She showed me the beauty and the meaning of doing Psychology research and inspired me to take it more seriously. I would like to give special thanks to Lydia Varon and Chloe Fico, two capable young women who helped me collecting and analyzing data. I must also acknowledge Yuting Lin for all the intellectual conversations over good coffees iii that gave birth to the vignette I used in my experiment (and also for those that had nothing to do with my project). I am deeply grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Harap for their generous financial support. Without their help, this project would not be possible. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends. Even though my parents live half a world away and probably cannot finish reading this lengthy paper without falling asleep several times in between, they nonetheless supported me in every way they could. I deeply appreciate them for never stopping believing in me, even during the times when I doubted myself. I cannot end this list without mentioning Cen Zhang and Sisi Gong. They provided me with all the constructive distractions and meaningful companionship. Without them, I could probably finish my thesis earlier, but with only half of my sanity and none of my sense of humor left. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………..… iii List of Tables …………………………………………………………………..viii List of Figures …………………………………………………………………....x Abstract …………………………………………………………………………. xi Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 1 History of Meta-stereotyping Research …………………………………....…. 1 A Novel Intergroup Setting ………………………………………………….... 4 The Current Studies …………………………………………………………... 7 Study 1: Source of Meta-stereotypes ……………………………………………. 9 Social Structure as a Source of Stereotypes ……………………………........... 9 Social Structure as a Source of Meta-stereotypes ……………………............ 11 Auto-stereotypes as a Source of Meta-stereotypes ………………………….. 13 Hypotheses of Sources of Meta-stereotypes ………………………………… 17 Method ………………………………………………………………………. 18 Participants and Procedure ………………………………………………... 18 Meta-stereotype Nomination ……………………………………………... 19 Auto-stereotype Nomination ……………………………………………… 19 Stereotype Nomination …………………………………………………… 20 Measures of Social Status and Inter-group Competition ………………..... 20 v Results ……………………………………………………………………….. 21 Correlation between Meta-stereotypes and Social Status and Inter-group Competition …………………………………………………….. 21 Quantifying Agreement and Disagreement about the Content of the Meta-stereotypes and Auto-stereotypes …................................... 25 Meta-stereotype Disagreement Index …………………………………….. 27 Auto-stereotype Disagreement Index …………………………………….. 29 Overlap between Meta-stereotypes and Auto-stereotypes ……………….. 29 Discrepancies between Overlapping Traits and Stereotypes ……………... 33 Overlap between Meta-stereotypes and Stereotypes ……………………... 35 Relational Phrases …………………………………………………………39 Accuracy Scale ……………………………………………………………. 42 Discussion …………………………………………………………………… 44 Study 2: Function of Meta-stereotypes ………………………………………… 50 Functions of Stereotypes …………………………………………………….. 50 Functions of Meta-stereotypes ………………………………………………. 53 Optimal Distinctiveness Model ……………………………………………… 54 Hypotheses …………………………………..………………………………. 57 Method ………………………………………………………………………. 58 Design …………………………………………………………………….. 58 Participants and Procedure ………………………………………………... 58 vi Materials ………………………………………………………………….. 59 Results ……………………………………………………………………….. 66 Application of Meta-stereotypes to the Self ……………………………… 66 Manipulation Check ………………………………………………………. 68 Level of Contact …………………………………………………………... 76 Perceived Prototypicality …………………………………………………. 76 Discussion …………………………………………………………………… 79 General Discussion …………………………………………………………….. 84 Appendix A. Stimuli Lists for Study 2 Surveys ……………………………….. 89 Appendix B. Mount Holyoke Survey for Study 2 ……………………………... 91 References ……………………………………………………………………… 96 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Key Information about Schools in the Five College Consortium ……… 5 Table 2. Five College Course Cross Enrollments 2010-2011 …………………… 8 Table 3. Reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) of Social Status Scale by College …………………………………………………………………. 22 Table 4. Reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) of Competition Scale by College …………………………………………………………………. 23 Table 5. College Social Status, Competition, Competence, and Warmth Score ………………………………………………………………….... 24 Table 6.Correlations between Traits and Predictors …………………………... 26 Table 7. Meta-stereotype Disagreement Indices Generated by Three Coders ...................................................................................................... 28 Table 8. Auto-stereotype Disagreement Indices Generated by Three Coders ...................................................................................................... 30 Table 9. Auto-stereotypes and Meta-stereotypes by College ………………...... 31 Table 10. Amount of Overlap between Auto-stereotypes and Meta-stereotypes ……………………………………………………….. 34 Table11. Discrepancies between Overlapping Traits and Stereotypes ………… 36 Table 12.Overlap between Meta-stereotypes and Stereotypes (Excluding Auto-stereotype Traits) ……...…………………………………………. 38 viii Table 13. Number and Percentage of Relational Phrases in Meta-stereotypes ..................................................................................... 40 Table 14.T-test between Accuracy Ratings of Meta-stereotypes and Auto-stereotypes by College …………………………………………… 45 Table 15. Demographic Breakdown for the Five Samples …………………….. 60 Table 16. Mean of Participants’ Ratings on Familiarity Scale by Condition ………………………………………………………………. 70 Table 17. Reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) of Level of Contact Measure ………. 77 ix LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Perceived Accuracy of Auto-stereotypes and Meta-stereotypes by College …………………………………………………………………. 43 Figure 2. Level of Contact Students had with Out-group Colleges …………… 48 Figure 3. Participants’ Application of Meta-stereotypes as a Function of Condition ………………………………………………………………. 67 Figure 4. Distinctiveness Ratings by Condition ……………………………….. 73 Figure 5. Mean Perceived Prototypicality by College …..................................... 78 x ABSTRACT This project aimed to add to the stereotype literature by providing a first look at the sources of meta-stereotype content and functions of meta-stereotyping in a novel intergroup setting: the Five College Consortium. Meta-stereotypes are the beliefs that members in one group hold about how their own group (in-group) is stereotyped by other groups (out-groups). Study 1 explored possible sources of meta-stereotypes through descriptive and correlational analysis. Study 2 was a functional analysis of meta-stereotyping. Data were collected from all five schools. Study 1 suggested that social status and inter-group competition and auto-stereotypes were both sources of meta-stereotypes. Study 2 found no direct support for the hypothesis that group members apply meta-stereotypes to themselves personally to fulfill their need for group distinctiveness, possibly due to the unsuccessful experimental manipulation. Implications for intergroup relations and possible alternative functions of meta-stereotyping were discussed. xi 1 INTRODUCTION There is a long and well-established tradition of studying stereotypes in social psychology. Much has been learned about the source, content, effects and psychological functions of stereotypes. A relatively new concept in this literature is the meta-stereotype: the beliefs that members in one group hold about how their own group (in-group) is stereotyped by other groups (out-groups). While it is becoming rapidly apparent that meta-stereotyping plays a role in people’s behavior and may be at least as important in intergroup relations as stereotyping, we know little about how and why it has such powerful influences. Therefore, this project aimed to add to the stereotype